Fishing and Conservation Groups Sue Country’s Largest Agricultural Water District over Illegal Plot to Raise Shasta Dam

Redding,
CA – Yesterday, a coalition of fishing and conservation groups filed a lawsuit
against Westlands Water District for unlawfully aiding efforts by the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to raise Shasta Dam. The destructive project would flood
critical parts of the protected McCloud River, located upstream of the dam,
harming a prized trout fishery, tribal lands, rare plants and wildlife, as well
as endangered Chinook salmon downstream of the dam. The State of California
also filed a lawsuit against Westlands yesterday.

Represented
by Earthjustice, Friends of the River, Golden Gate Salmon Association, Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Institute for Fisheries
Resources, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) are urging the court to find Fresno-based Westlands in
violation of the California Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. A 1989 amendment to that law protects the
McCloud River by prohibiting any agency of the State of California from
assisting or cooperating with the planning or construction of any dam that
could adversely affect the McCloud River’s free-flowing condition or its wild
trout fishery.

Westlands,
an agency of the state, is violating that law by cooperating with the Trump
Administration’s aggressive plans to raise Shasta Dam. As the largest
agricultural water district in the country, Westlands stands to gain more water
from the project to sell to corporate agriculture in the southern part of the
California’s Central Valley, hundreds of miles from the dam.

“The
proposed dam raise and Westlands’ current actions in support of it are illegal.
It’s time to end Westlands’ disrespect of California’s Wild and Scenic Rivers
Act,” said Ron Stork of Friends of the River.

While
efforts to raise Shasta Dam have rumbled for years in the background, the issue
was tabled indefinitely during the Obama Administration. Under the Trump
Administration and with Westlands’ former lobbyist as Secretary of the
Interior, which oversees Reclamation, the federal government has revived the
dam raise project. Despite the protests of California leaders, the project timeline has been
fast-tracked with construction to begin by the end of this year. Westlands is
playing a key role in advancing the project by leading and funding an
environmental impact review and negotiating to cover part of the more than $1.4
billion project cost. Westlands is so eager to raise the dam that it even
purchased 3,000 acres along the McCloud River to clear the way for the land to
be flooded if the dam is raised. All these actions violate the California Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act.

“Neither Westlands nor Trump’s Bureau of Reclamation
is above the law. Californians spoke
when they amended the California Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to make sure
agencies of the state would not help a hostile federal government ram through a
project that benefits big, corporate agriculture at the expense of protected
rivers, tribes, fisheries, and threatened species,” said Nina Robertson,
Staff Attorney at Earthjustice.

Reactions to plot to raise Shasta Dam

“Trump and
Westlands’ plans would sacrifice our wild rivers and wildlife to secure water
for a select few. Improving agricultural efficiency and appropriately
sited water storage are more cost-effective and innovative ways to
stabilize California’s water future,” said Drev Hunt, Senior Attorney
for NRDC. “Raising Shasta Dam will irreversibly accelerate the
collapse of an already vulnerable ecosystem,” Hunt added.

In addition to harming the McCloud River, the dam
raise would also destroy the sacred lands of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. The Tribe already lost 90% of its lands when
Shasta Dam was first built in the 1940s. This included Winnemem Wintu villages,
sacred ceremonial sites and burial sites. “We stand in solidarity with the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe, which will see almost all of its remaining sacred sites
destroyed by the dam raise. The injustice must stop,” said Stacey Geis,
Managing Attorney at Earthjustice.

Endangered plants, fish and wildlife, including salmon
that live downstream of the dam, are also at risk from the mega-dam expansion. Kim
Delfino of Defenders of Wildlife stated, “Last week, the United Nations
released an alarming report identifying more than one million plant and animal
species at risk of extinction. The
Shasta Dam raise, which would drive imperiled species like salmon and the
Shasta salamander closer towards extinction, is exactly what we don’t need in
California.”

“Unbelievably, those seeking to corral more water try
to justify this terrible idea by saying it will help salmon populations
downstream. The science, including
findings of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, clearly says otherwise. The dam raise would harm—not help— salmon
downstream,” says John McManus, President of the Golden Gate Salmon
Association.

Noah Oppenheim, executive director of the Pacific
Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and the Institute for Fisheries
Resources added,
“Fishing communities from Santa Barbara to Bellingham, Washington depend on
Chinook salmon that are born in the Sacramento River and return as adults each
year. The Shasta dam raise is a salmon killing project, threatening millions of
fish and thousands of jobs by trapping the Sacramento behind an even bigger
concrete curtain. We are proud to join this coalition and the State of California
in defending the economic, environmental, and cultural wealth of the rural West
Coast by defeating this ill-conceived project.”

“Westlands’
actions are a blatant violation of law enacted by the Legislature and signed by
Governor Deukmejian in 1989 to protect the remarkable natural resources of the
Shasta region. The proposed dam raise and reservoir expansion are simply
an attempted water grab for unsustainable corporate farming of the Central
Valley at the expense of the residents of the Shasta area,” said Jim Pachl
of Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter.

Charter-boat- and private-boat anglers report phenomenal success on king salmon thanks both to favorable conditions and to the persistent efforts of the Golden Gate Salmon Association to improve salmon-release survival….

California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1&comma; defying Gov&period; Newsom and pushing the state to adopt federal environmental and labor rules in place before Trump took office&period; Will Newsom s…

If you care about salmon and fishing communities, take a minute to urge the governor and your assembly member to pass SB 1. If you believe that CA should have sovereign authority over its waters against federal efforts to usurp, make your voice heard here:www.votervoice.net/GGSA/campaigns/67872/respond… See MoreSee Less

California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1&comma; defying Gov&period; Newsom and pushing the state to adopt federal environmental and labor rules in place before Trump took office&period; Will Newsom s…

If you care about salmon and fishing communities, take a minute to urge the governor and your assembly member to pass SB 1. If you believe that CA should have sovereign authority over its waters against federal efforts to usurp, make your voice heard here:www.votervoice.net/GGSA/campaigns/67872/respond… See MoreSee Less

About GSSA

GSSA is a coalition that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen, related businesses, restaurants, a native tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families, and communities that rely on salmon. GSSA has a board comprised of representatives of this diverse community, which reaches from Oregon to the Central Coast, through the Bay-Delta and up a dozen rivers in the Central Valley.